Funding Opportunities

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CALS Summer Graduate Fellowship

CALS Summer Graduate Fellowship

CALS is pleased to announce its annual summer graduate fellow competition. The CALS summer graduate fellow will receive a stipend equivalent to a summer teaching release and a $1000 research budget for travel and research-related expenses, enabling the fellow to devote the summer session to working on his/her dissertation.

Applications are due by February 14The following eligibility requirements apply:

  1. for purposes of this award, a doctoral student who has successfully passed comprehensive exams, constituted a dissertation committee, and won approval of a dissertation prospectus focused on an American literature and/or culture topic from any time period is eligible to apply;
  2. students who have previously won a Humanities Institute semester-long or summer residency or a Center for Early Modern Studies Junior Scholar fellowship are eligible to apply; moreover, the summer fellowship does not affect a student’s eligibility for the standard dissertation semester fellowship in the Liberal Arts; finally, receiving a CALS Summer Graduate Fellowship does not preclude a student from applying for a CALS Dissertation Support Award or vice-versa–accepting one award will not render an applicant ineligible for the other at any time.  
  3. students planning to defend/graduate in the summer of the current year are not eligible to apply;
  4. students may not teach or hold full-time employment during the funded summer session;
  5. students on federal aid should be advised that their federal package might be affected by the stipend money.

How to Apply

Applications must include the following:

  1. Cover letter with applicant’s name, contact information, project title, and expected date of defense and graduation;
  2. Prospectus (no more than 4 double spaced pages, 12 pt. font) describing the project, explaining its wider significance, a timetable for completion, and specific research plans during the period of the award;
  3. Curriculum Vitae;
  4. A confidential letter of recommendation from the chair of the student’s dissertation committee.

Applications should be sent as a single file pdf document to CALS Director Sean Goudie; the confidential letter of recommendation should be sent separately by the faculty adviser to Professor Goudie.

Applications will be evaluated by several members of the CALS Advisory Board. The award winner will be announced on or around the first week of March.

Spring Lectures and Acknowledgments

The fellow is required to give a presentation, open to the liberal arts community, based on material written during the period of the summer fellowship during the following school year. Also, appropriate acknowledgement of the Center’s support must be given in the dissertation, publications, and all other activities related to the summer fellowship project.

Smith Headshot

Justin Smith, a past CALS Graduate Research Assistant and recipient of CALS travel funding, has accepted a position at Randolph-Macon College, where he will serve as an Assistant Professor of English and Black Studies. Congratulations, Justin, on this fantastic job market success!

Evans Headshot

Sabrina Evans, winner of the 2022 CALS Summer Graduate Fellowship, has accepted a faculty position at Howard University, where she will serve as an Assistant Professor of English specializing in African American Literature. Howard is home to the Moorland Spingarn Research Center, whose archives are central to Sabrina's research. Congratulations, Sabrina, on this outstanding job market success!